DOJ Inspector General to review actions by FBI and DOJ officials in lead up to the 2016 election

[bigtree]

Josh Marshall ?@joshtpm 4m4 minutes ago
BREAKING: DOJ Inspector General to review actions by FBI and DOJ officials in lead up to the 2016 election. [link:http://|http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/breaking--107]

JM:

A few points are worth noting about this.

Inspectors General are not political appointees. And they are independent of political appointees. So Donald Trump or Jeff Sessions cannot just shut this down when they get into office. They can try of course. But the statutes governing IGs specifically prevent this.

The final result in the 2016 election was extraordinarily close. Less than a hundred thousand votes made the difference in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania together. That's close enough that lots of things made the final difference. But there's a lot of evidence that Comey's letter changed the outcome of the election - evidence borne out by a close analysis of the public polls and the private polls of both campaigns. It is a big, big deal...

NBC Nightly News ?@NBCNightlyNews 1m1 minute ago
MORE: US Justice Dept. Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz explains what he will be looking into during the review.

[HoneyBadger]

1. That covers a lot of ground

[bigtree]

2. yes

...it does.

[True Dough]

3. I wonder

What if Comey is found to be complicit in meddling in the election through the decisions he made on the Hillary emails? What could the punishment be? The obvious is that he will be relieved of his duties as director of the FBI, but could there be any other repercussions? Any criminal charges?

[bigtree]

7. and Trump will replace him?

...not the best scenario.

Better that this serves as a shot across the bow, complete with lower-level shakeups - thinking of those in the FBI who mainstreamed conclusions/allegations within the agency contained in that anti-Clinton book (can't recall the name). There's definitely a corrosive element which likely didn't originate with Comey. It's still not fine and good that he allowed or encouraged that anti-Clinton element, so, we'll see.

At any rate, this investigation has the potential, at the very least, to serve notice that these actions won't be allowed to occur with impunity.

[True Dough]

8. You're right, we don't want a Trump hand-picked director of the FBI

But the repercussions that you're suggestion are hardly going to be a deterrent. If that's the extent of the blowback, then we can expect something similar to happen again in the future.

It's a real catch-22.

[shraby]

4. The best news is that it can't be shut down by the idiots who will be in charge soon.

[bigtree]

9. I can just imagine Trump fuming about that

...I'll bet he harasses the IG, though, to the point of censure.

[procon]

5. "Members of the public."

"Horowitz said he was initiating the inquiry "in response to requests from numerous Chairmen and Ranking Members of Congressional oversight committees, various organizations, and members of the public."

That's us peons; we must have made a pretty big stink!

[bigtree]

10. yep

...it's nice to find some folks in government still responding to the will of the people.

[cornball 24]

6. About time!!

[bigtree]

11. a little late

...but, here we are.

[ncgrits]

12. Looks to me like Drumpf CAN get rid of the the Inspector General in pretty sort order?

"An Inspector General may be removed from office by the President. If an Inspector General is removed from office or is transferred to another position or location within an establishment, the President shall communicate in writing the reasons for any such removal or transfer to both Houses of Congress, not later than 30 days before the removal or transfer. Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit a personnel action otherwise authorized by law, other than transfer or removal."

From here:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode05a/usc_sec_05a_01000003----000-.html


I hope somebody here knows more about it than I do (THAT shouldn't be too hard!) and can reassure us that Horowitz will be able proceed past 1/20. . . .

[Gothmog]

13. Comey is pond scum and lacks any professional or other ethics

[bigtree]

14. kick

[lpbk2713]

15. Good luck with that.

Given the fact that the subjects of the review are pros at this sort of thing it's
likely the first thing they did was to be sure they covered their own asses.

[Gothmog]

16. It will not be easy for trump to stop this investigation

I saw this on the Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/01/12/there-will-be-an-investigation-of-james-comeys-conduct-we-might-get-some-accountability-after-all/?utm_term=.25630ca46fd1

UPDATE: Amy Jeffress, a former senior Justice Department official and currently an attorney at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, emails more detail on whether this probe could be closed down under Trump:

The Inspector General Act authorizes the Attorney General to interfere with an IG investigation under certain exceptional circumstances, one of which relates to intelligence matters, which arguably could apply here. But the Attorney General would have to find that action is “necessary to prevent the significant impairment to the national interests of the United States” (and there are congressional notification requirements as well). I can’t think of any precedent for taking this step, and politically it would be hugely controversial, and therefore unlikely.

It may be harder that we think for Trump to block this investigation

BTW Comey is pond scum